This invention relates to a child's feet receiving device for use on a vehicle seat. Young children before they are old enough to sit comfortably on a vehicle seat in many cases use a specially designed car seat which rigidly attaches to the vehicle on top of a normal passenger seat and includes straps for retaining the child in the child's seat. Such designs have now developed into fully satisfactory arrangements which operate to retain the child effectively within the vehicle and to allow the child to sit and see comfortably.
However the child is seated above the normal passenger seat with its legs depending downwardly from a flat seat portion of the child seat toward the normal passenger seat. The feet thus in many cases rest directly upon the vehicle seat which can provide a comfortable arrangement for the child in that its feet are properly supported with the child seat defining a seat portion of a convenient seating height above the vehicle seat.
This leaves the child's feet and shoes resting upon the vehicle seat. Even at times when the ground outside is dry, this can transport dust and other foreign materials onto the vehicle seat thus spoiling the upholstery. When the ground outside is wet or covered with snow, the child's shoes can transport dirty, staining, water or moisture onto the vehicle seat which can seriously degrade the upholstery.
One device which has been proposed to overcome this problem comprises little more than a flat plastic sheet which is placed between the vehicle seat and the child's seat both down the back of the vehicle seat and across the seat portion to an edge which depends over the front edge of the vehicle seat. However this is merely a cover sheet which does not prevent any liquid which collects on the sheet from running across the sheet and off the sheet back onto the vehicle seat.
It is one object of the invention, therefore, to provide an improved device for receiving the feet of a child on a vehicle seat which prevents liquid from running from the device onto the vehicle seat.
According to the invention, therefore, there is provided a device for resting on the seat of a vehicle and for receiving the feet of a child on the seat, the device comprising an integral unitary semi-rigid plastic moulding defining a generally horizontal receiving surface, an upstanding wall member surrounding said receiving surface at a rear edge and along opposed side edges thereof, a downturned apron portion at a front edge of said receiving surface and a support surface for engaging an upper surface of the seat, said support surface being inclined to said receiving surface at an acute angle thereto whereby with said support surface resting on the seat said receiving surface is inclined slightly forwardly from said wall member at said rear edge toward said apron portion.
The device is properly shaped therefore to define a receiving surface which is retained horizontal or leaning slightly forwardly by the configuration with the support surface. Any liquid carried into the vehicle on the shoes of the child or from melting snow on or around the child runs forwardly over the apron toward the ground.
Preferably the device is designed as a separate unit which can be attached to a separate child's seat mounted on the vehicle seat. In this case the width of the device can be chosen so that it slips between the conventional legs of a child's seat of this type thus allowing it to be positioned as required relative to the child seat and relative to the front edge of the vehicle seat to accommodate different depths of vehicle seat from the front edge to the rear edge.
Preferably the device is hollow and is formed with a rear wall extending upwardly from the support surface so as to define the upstanding wall member and so as to interconnect the support surface and the receiving surface.
With the foregoing in view, and other advantages as will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention relates as this specification proceeds, the invention is herein described by reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, which includes a description of the best mode known to the applicant and of the preferred typical embodiment of the principles of the present invention, in which: